Presenting the latest in my collection of full-scale LEGO weaponry, Darth Vader's lightsaber! This is the official version from The Empire Strikes Back (There is a different movie prop version of Vader's lightsaber for each movie from Episode III-Episode VI). The model contains only official, unaltered LEGO pieces with no glue or other adhesives. It not only supports its own weight, I can swing it around and take out Jedi without the MOC breaking on me. Watch this demo video of the model's durability:

I've used my reinforcing "cross-locking" and plate-layering techniques to strengthen the model, which can be held securely at almost any point. The idea is to make the lightsaber so strong, I can allow kids at the Bricks Cascade public exhibition to hold it without me worrying too much.

The blade design is very simple, which works visually, given how simple the movie version is. The simplicity helps with the durability part!

Woah. I'm very impressed at the fact that the blade can stay together. If anything, I think that there is not enough red, however, after looking at how the blade is constructed, there isn't much of an option without consuming a ton more plates. Stellar MOC.